 What do I think about the controversial topic of MLMs? Probably a lot of you know what that is, but those who don't, it's multi-level marketing, otherwise known as network marketing. And there's probably new names popping up every year about this. There are less charitable names like pyramid marketing or even simply pyramid schemes. So what do I think about this? Someone asked me, well, George, I'm building my, in this case, this person is building a coaching business or they're going to become a coach. They already have some clients and they're going to get more clients as a coach. And yet they also have been looking at a product for their own family, for their own use that they like and the product is part of a multi-level marketing system, multi-level marketing company. And so they're like, well, gosh, not only can we use the product, we might become distributors of the product. Why not earn some extra money, right? What's so bad about earning some extra money? And you just have to, you know, tell it to three people and they love the product and they'll tell it to three other people. How simple, how simple it is, right? You'd be a billionaire, you know, within five minutes because you know, three people tell three people and you have like by the seventh level, you have like 10 million people or whatever, you know, who are your, who are your downline? So why, what's my opinion? And you can already tell my tone, I apologize for those who are actually dedicated into MLM. First, I have to say, I have been involved with multi-level marketing since the nineties. So I know what I'm talking about. I'm one of the old school MLM folks. My family started doing multi-level marketing Amway. Remember Amway and Herbalife? And I got into, you know, noni juice, prepaid legal, even sold solar panels and wind credits, you know, green energy credits using multi-level marketing. I've done so many, so many multi-level marketing stuff, you know, you wouldn't believe. And not only that, I started my own multi-level marketing company back in 20, I believe it was 2013. I don't know if anybody here was part of that. And, you know, it was, I hired MLM lawyers and MLM consultants to help me develop this thing. And I had, you know, it was a one-year experiment, but I got like almost 200 members in my, technically therefore part of my downline because I was the one who started, I was in the top of the pyramid. And of course the top of the pyramid always wins. And so I, anyway, so I have lots of experience from both the member side, just using the products from early days, just Amway, you know, laundry detergent and vitamins and all that stuff to being a distributor and being a leader, a recruiter of other distributors and then starting my own company. So I think I know more than most people about this. However, I have to say I have not been involved in MLM for at least, for almost 10 years now. So I'm sure there's news to, I mean, of course now with AI and a lot of the social media stuff, MLM has, you know, taken the new tools, but the same old system of the idea is, what, come on, it's such a simple model. It excited me all my life, right in the beginning. Just imagine three people, you get three people excited about something, right? And then they get three people but they're excited about something. And then each of those three only needs to get three people. I mean, how many people do you know? You know, at least 150 people, you just need three and not just that, you can make new people. You just need three people. Everybody just needs three people. And then we'll all be millionaires, we'll all be so rich because, and then you just sit back, passive income, right? Now why hasn't that worked for the vast majority of people who get into MLM network marketing? It sounds so easy. Why is it, nobody tells you this and I'm gonna tell it to you. And if you are dedicated in MLM and you say, George, I do not wanna hear any negativity, don't watch this video. I have plenty of other videos for you to watch. I hope you'll watch everything else but don't watch this one, okay? But for those who are open-minded and even those who are in MLM and like, all right, hip hip me with it, I'm strong enough and I can be an, MLM apologetics, I have something else to say, that's fine, that's great. So here's why it doesn't work for the vast majority of people who do it, two reasons. One is that you think it's so easy to recruit three people to then sell the three people, you have no idea. I have lost more friends than three, than 30. I have lost so many friends in my life because I tried to get them into my MLM thing, multiple companies over the years and new friends, great, new recruits. And for some reason, it's really hard to get people to say, sure, not only do I like the product, I'm gonna help you sell it because people don't realize that it's not just very innocently, three people who just tell three people, no, no, no. We're actually talking about three people who will become leaders of an entire organization of people, because if you do three times, three times, three times, three, right? By the third or fourth or fifth level, you have an organization of people, it's not just an innocent, oh, I have three friends who are doing this with no, no. You now are partly responsible, not always, but partly responsible for hundreds of people and eventually thousands of people are looking up to you as one of the upline leaders to give a talk or to whatever, to model good behavior. And most people, when they see the upline leaders, they're like, no, I can't do that. So it's like, you end up having to recruit really three super salespeople who are also leaders or potential leaders, and that's like remarkably hard to find. It's hard to find someone like me who is like willing to go for it and it's really, really hard. Anyway, but not only that, that's hard enough, but once you start recruiting people and I've recruited dozens of people, hundreds of people in my life, I came across this dastardly fact that nobody tells you, which is not as easy as it sounds to get three people, three people, it's even easier for it to collapse the other way. What do I mean by that? Because you have to excite three people who have to then be so good at selling that they excite three people and then they have to be so good at selling that they think, but then on the other side, it's the same thing. If one person gets discouraged somewhere down the line, one person gets discouraged, that becomes a virus as well. That's why I told you, don't watch this video. One person gets discouraged, that becomes a virus that infects the other people in their cross line as well as in their downline and in their upline and then this person quits and then the upline goes, my God, one of my three people quit. No, and they get discouraged and then the collapse actually happens faster than the recruitment in the beginning because it's just like anything else, it's easier to destroy something than it is to build it. You can destroy something almost overnight and it takes 10 years to build it, okay? Sounds like I have some personal experience from this, right? So that's what nobody tells you. It makes it sound so easy and it's like it turns out to be harder than building a coaching business and making it successful. That's the irony of it. It's actually harder to build and sustain a multi-level marketing organization than it is to do what I do. I've been in the middle of all my life. Why am I not still there? Watch what I do and listen to what I say because there's a reason why I'm not doing that anymore because this is so much easier doing content, and not just easier, but it's more true to my heart because here's the other thing they don't tell you, okay? They don't tell you that when you recruit people into the system, okay? Because that's how you want to make money. You got to recruit people into the system. The people, why do they quit? Why would they ever quit such a wonderful system? You know why they quit? Because every person in the MLM system is now a competitor to you. Let me explain, right? Like you recruit this person, right? You recruit, you are here and you recruit three people on your downline. The irony is that those three people not only your downline, they're also your competitors now because when they find somebody, right? They could either join them or they could join you. So it's like, it's weird, it's a weird dynamic and the other thing is not only is everybody up and down and cross your competitors, it's the weirdest thing. You end up having the most competitors than any system that I know of. Whereas when you are your own coach, you really have no competitor, not really, because you're truly unique. Whereas if you're just a representative of the same vitamins or the same noni drink or the same prepaid legal plan, well, so is everybody else. Sure, your personality is unique. Yeah, sure. Your training might be unique, whatever, but it's sensual, there's some other people in the system who are better trainers than you, better personality than you. They are better at love bombing than you, okay? So not only is everybody become a competitor, but also every other multi-level marketing agent becomes a competitor. I was selling Amway vitamins, well, so what? Herbalife comes along, Usana comes along and every there's like a new vitamin, a multi-level marketing vitamin company every two months or whatever. It's like, oh my God, there's all these competitors now taking my down line away, taking my people away. Because of course, when the new company starts, they hype it up and say, listen, do you want to be part of the top of the pyramid or do you want to join five years later? Of course, every new company is the most exciting thing. Everyone wants to join at the top of the pyramid. So it's like, sorry, I Amway's too old school. I'm gonna go join this new company with a new formula, with a new system. And so I'm like, oh my God, this is why it's not people get discouraged on this here, they get recruited away. And then that's why the whole thing, their friends get recruited away, part of the, anyway. So like I said, I know a lot of this stuff and I'm telling the things that people don't say. I'm telling, and then so let me go back to the original question. The person says, George, I'm a life coach and I want to possibly use this product. And let me say one more thing about the product, okay? The reason why you're so sold on the product because there's someone selling it to you. What people don't tell you is that, well, that's one of the benefits of multi-level marketing is that there's an individual person, usually a friend or a family member or a colleague you met, who is like telling you about the best things about this product. You know who's not selling you the product? Amazon is not selling you all the alternative products. You have to go and look for it. You have to read the reviews, no, no. That's passive, the Amazon is selling all these alternatives to you passively and you have to go research yourself. Well, it's so much easier to research when you've got someone who's making sure they're direct messaging you every two days and say, hey, you have any questions about this vitamin or about this product? It's so much easier to buy when you've got a salesperson selling it to you than when he tells you this. Whereas, so you know what I found out after hawking so many MLM products? I'm like, oh my God, every MLM product, there's almost always a cheaper and better alternative on Amazon or elsewhere that they don't tell you about. Obviously they're not gonna tell you. The sales people are not gonna tell you. You have to go and find out yourself. Why is it better and cheaper? Let me explain why. MLM, you have to pay all the lines, people. They don't tell you this. Now they tell you, well, no, it's not really, you don't really, the cost is not higher because Amazon has their own marketing costs and these other companies have their own marketing costs. Baloney, that's BS, I'm in business, I know business. I'm like, I've run the numbers. I'm like, no, no, no, I don't care because MLM companies have their own marketing costs too. They also do ads. They also have to do graphic design and hire marketing teams. And they have to pay three levels, five levels, eight levels or sometimes more levels of people, sales people, okay. One product costs $100 but they have to pay salesperson number one, two, three, four, a bunch before they pay the manufacturer. And so of course the product is less, I mean, you get better value by buying from a company that doesn't have all these layers of salespeople. Trust me, I mean, that's called economies of scale. All right, this is called economics, microeconomics. All right, so long story short, let's go back to the original question. Why is it detrimental? And by the way, I'm gonna make sure I don't send this too. I have some friends, some clients who are actually quite successful at MLM. I hope they don't see this because they're gonna get very discouraged or they're gonna hate me once this video comes out. But I'm telling the truth because I'm trying to save the majority of you who, now some people make it. My mom has made so much money in MLM. Actually she ended up investing all of her earnings into new MLM companies and those failed so she ended up having nothing at the end of it. But that's another story. So back to the original question, as a coach, as a consultant, as a whatever you're building, is it harmful to just also talk about this product, especially if this product is even related to your work? Maybe you're a holistic healer and then the essential oil product comes along. DoTERRA, Young Living, great product. I actually have DoTERRA somewhere in my house. My wife loves it. We've used Young Living product, essential oils. Essential oils, I feel like, are the gateway drug for a lot of MLM because it's very pop. I mean, it's very popular. DoTERRA, Young Living, oils, very popular. But also there are, like I said, cheaper and better alternatives probably if you actually do the research on essential. That's a beside. So back to the question. What's the harm? You add to a product and you just happen to mention it every now and then to your clients? I'll tell you the harm, okay? In my opinion. First, the deepest harm, in my opinion, or deepest liability is that you will always be tempted by this dream of MLM. Like I had to cut myself off because it is the most tempting and easiest dream to get back into. Your friends go, look, all these leaders are making all this money, just sitting back and giving talks and going to Hawaii, and which I've been to plenty of those vacation trips, paid for because I recruited enough people. There will always be this dream and it will always be nagging at you and then you will try it and then you'll lose some friends and then you'll, but really the liability is that it takes time and energy away from your own business. Your own business is really the only thing that it can control and I should tell you, by the way, I've been part of several MLM companies that seem really successful and they collapsed. And then I was left with, my God, of all these people who are following me and this company collapsed, we end up going to another company, right? But still it's like, you're never really in control because it's not your own product, it's not your own company. So that's liability number one, liability number two is the reputation is terrible. The person who asked me the question knows this, the reputation of multi-level marketing, other people have heard about it and go, yeah, I wanna stay away from that. It feels really salesy and I have my friends who went crazy over this stuff and yeah, something, you go cuckoo when you get the MLM dream, right? You just go completely nuts. I've been there several times in my life, I'm just completely nuts. I don't see it, it's blind, it's blinding how like shining it is, right? It blinds you, it becomes your God. Okay, you only realize it, but it does. Anyway, and then it's a cult. That's a better way of putting it. Okay, MLMs are cults, okay? Really, the effective ones, right? The ones that recruit people and retain them are by definition cults. All right, we could talk about that all day long. Anyway, but so either people have not heard of it or they have a bad reputation. They look at you like, okay, you're doing that kind of stuff. Instantly they think less of you, okay? And I've been thought of as less of many, many years. That's why I know this. Like they either haven't heard of it and then once you educate them to it, they're like, they either get the bug and they become crazy too or and usually they fail, 99, 95% of MLM people fail, myself included, I'm one of the failures and I was quite successful, right? Still failed or they don't, anyway, that's it. So I wanna say, sometimes the only way to learn the lesson is to do it, however. So if you have watched this video and you still have the bug, you still have the dream, what can I say? You have to try it out. You might be one of the successful ones. You might be one of the good ones that actually don't make it a cult. I don't know. It's weird that I'm ending the video this way but I am always, ultimately, no matter how strong of a stance I take on something, I always believe in diversity of thought. I always believe in diversity of ways because I don't have the only way. So with that very muddy ending, I will leave that to you and for you to decide what to do, I hope this has been helpful in some way and thank you, thank you for asking. Thanks for watching this. And I'll add one more thing. And thanks to those who are live here and giving comments. Everything has a light and dark side, right? Even cults have a light and dark side. Some of my most meaningful interactions, friendships have been in MLM companies. Some of the most personal development that I've grown have been through MLM training and MLM systems and networks and teams. It's true. They have, some of them have really good training that can be applied outside of that system to the rest of business and the rest of life. And so, of course, right? And so that's why I say there's always a diversity of ways and the people watching this, you're gonna take away from this video what you will. Some of you are like, thank you for confirming. I'm not gonna go in that direction. And some of you are like, you know what? I'm gonna give it a try and see what happens. And please do. And then come back three, five years later and comment on this video and tell me how it went. I love to know. And I'll add one more thing. And I wanna thank the person who just raised this in the chat. One of the things I forgot, but one of the big liabilities of getting involved in MLM is that it's so easy to start thinking of everyone around you as either a potential customer or a potential distributor, potential recruit. Because why? Because, well, no experience needed. You just need to be willing to talk to people and in wanting to make some money. Some side money, just some side money, right? And so everybody becomes a candidate. Why not? Because you wanna have faith in people. That's part of the training. Part of the thing is you have faith. Have faith because they're gonna tell you stories of someone who was working at a gas station and that's all they thought they could do. And then now they're a millionaire because they were willing to talk to people. And so what happened was I lost some of the most precious relationships I had in my life because these were the people, I pushed them hard because they were the ones who were most people-centric. So I thought, well, of course you could succeed. If anyone could succeed in this, you could. You know all these people. You were so good at all these people and I pushed them. And I could have still had that relationship, still had that connection so many times over the years. And so it's like the irony is that, you know if you start, anyway, you might lose some of the most precious friendships and potential business relationships they could have had. So having said that though, like I said, some people meet the most wonderful connections through MLM as well. Some people meet their love of their life then people meet some of their best friends for life. Usually what happens is once I leave the MLM just like with most cults they don't wanna have anything to do with me anymore and that happens with all of them. I still have no friends who I knew from my MLM days because they're onto their, you know, anyway. So take that what you will and make your own wise choice as aligned with your own values and experience.